Dennis Potter, who passes before these works, "Karaoke and Cold Lazarus" could be produced, asked in his last interview with Melvyn Bragg, "Where will the writers who want to tell stories about life as it truly is, beneath the hype and glitter, get their opportunity as I did in the 60's, in our current world of Rupert Murdoch sensibilities?" Karaoke is a tale of personal responsibility that reaches deeper than "E-network" can imagine in its most profoundly affected moments of easy sanctimony and sentimentality. This play should be at the peak of viewing assignments for all students of what TV can really do and be in a democracy that is real, not just a convenient platitude. Dennis Potter may have been the "Shakespeare" of our times. We will be lucky if such integrity and eloquence graces us again.
